title: Tensile testing of ultra-thin films on water surface.
abstract: The surface of water provides an excellent environment for gliding movement, in both nature and modern technology, from surface living animals such as the water strider, to Langmuir-Blodgett films. The high surface tension of water keeps the contacting objects afloat, and its low viscosity enables almost frictionless sliding on the surface. Here we utilize the water surface as a nearly ideal underlying support for free-standing ultra-thin films and develop a novel tensile testing method for the precise measurement of mechanical properties of the films. In this method, namely, the pseudo free-standing tensile test, all specimen preparation and testing procedures are performed on the water surface, resulting in easy handling and almost frictionless sliding without specimen damage or substrate effects. We further utilize van der Waals adhesion for the damage-free gripping of an ultra-thin film specimen. Our approach can potentially be used to explore the mechanical properties of emerging two-dimensional materials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Yuseong Gu, Daejeon 305-701, Korea.
authors.forename: Jae-Han
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Adeel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nizami
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hwangbo
authors.forename: Bongkyun
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.forename: Hak-Joo
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Chang-Su
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Woo
authors.forename: Seungmin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hyun
authors.forename: Taek-Soo
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Kim